Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 11:53 pm Post subject: What do you make of this board?

My friend is moving overseas and offered to sell me this board for $100, it's about 29.5" X 9', there is a pad that was attached to the deck, it covers up the specifications , all I can read is Mistral freeride. I comes with the original fin, 45cm powerbox.
I would guess it's at least 130L maybe over 150L.
Can anyone ID it?

It looks to be a great price, but I have no experience regarding its performance characteristics. But given the freeride designation, it probably offers decent performance that probably comes in a bit less high strung than a full on light wind slalom design. It has outboard strap positions, so it should offer fairly good speed and leverage over the fin.

If you check out the following site, you can read a test summary in English.

Decent light wind or first short board. The pads are most probably covering del-lamination cracks or repair after cracks. You can certainly make few bucks out of it but investigate what is hidden underneath the black pads . With or without need of a repair 100$ is a good price.

Deck padding means one of four things I can think of. The owner wanted better traction, wanted a softer feel, wanted to protect the deck from damage, and/or is covering up damage and/or repairs. Most boards I sell are padded, and for the first three reasons only. If a board I'm considering buying is already padded there, I use knuckles, lots of pressure, very close visual examination, my ears (pressed against suspicious spots as I compress the board), my lips (I kiss dings* HARD to detect leaks), and a scale to try and detect damage or repairs. (Fortunately for people who buy my boards, I freely disclose and discuss any damage, hidden or otherwise.)

* If I get carried away, it means I reallyreally like the board, maybe too much; hold out for full asking price.

It also helps to think about what you're buying. Some brands and models are notorious for soft decks, rippled or delammed bottoms, weak A-boxes, etc. If considering one of those, I check them extra carefully and expect a cheap price so if it fails soon it's not a big loss.

In your case, ask yourself how much jumping you see him doing. Probably not much. Better yet, ask him whether there's any damage. If he's your friend, or is simply honest, he'll give you an honest answer.

Then there's Google. Mistral had at least Screamer and Energy versions of their Freerides, and their characteristics may be important to you.

And for a hunnerd bucks, who cares? Consider it a cheap experiment with a different style of board, and you'll get your money's worth anyway.

I wouldn't worry about the extra pads and what's underneath them. You can usually tell the amount of abuse pretty well by checking out the visible parts of the board, particularly around the nose area. Looks like your friend might have been a less agro sailor based on the inboard strap positions, so any serious deck problems are highly unlikely. Also, check the weight of the board against the original specs keeping in mind the production tolerances and the weight of the extra pads. Lastly, if you get a chance to try the board, be sure to move the straps to the outboard positions.

It finally dawned on me that, considering the extent of the board's padding, it's for comfort, traction, and board and body protection, not covering damage ... unless his kid or mistress took a hammer to the whole deck.

He bought it from someone else about a year ago, and my friend hasn't used it much. He did manage to break the nose off and had it repaired by the local ding guy who does good work, you can't even tell.
It's still light.
It seems to have a lot of footstrap positions. I have a SB Go 155L and this board seems very similar so perhaps owning this board would be redundant?

If you have a Go 155, that board is redundant. (says the man with
6 boards between 70 and 80 ltrs)

-Craig

beaglebuddy wrote:

He bought it from someone else about a year ago, and my friend hasn't used it much. He did manage to break the nose off and had it repaired by the local ding guy who does good work, you can't even tell.
It's still light.
It seems to have a lot of footstrap positions. I have a SB Go 155L and this board seems very similar so perhaps owning this board would be redundant?

Compared to my SB Go 155L, the mistral is about 4" narrower and a foot longer so while the displacement is near the same the shape seems a bit different. It's got a short surfing type fin that I would like for my windsup so I'll probably go for it.

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forumYou can attach files in this forumYou can download files in this forum